I’ve recently went through an account compromise as well as my email getting hacked and all items on my account, every single item in my account vault AND my 150 slot guild bank were taken, sold in the TP, and the money was probably transferred to the hacker’s account, I would assume. It was a terrible experience and I gave up hope of ever getting back my GW2 account, since my email was also compromised. Fortunately these issues were taken care of and the good people at ArenaNet had enough evidence to support my ownership of the account and restored my items, all of which I’m grateful for! All items except the 70-80 stacks of materials and named weapons in my guild bank were restored, in the end I was happy just to be back on my own account.
But it got me thinking. There is nothing in place to stop hackers from invading an account vault/guild stash right away. When the hacker enters your account all they would need to do is open up your vault, take everything, and then sell the items in the account.
I believe there should be an option for a “pin number” system similar to what RuneScape had around 2007-2009 since those were my last years playing that MMORPG. As I remember it you’d ask the banker NPC to implement a pin number, numbers 0-9 and all buttons that switched places every time a button was pushed. If you forgot the pin number you would have to wait 7 days (1 week) for it to reset. During that period you could use a nearby deposit stall to throw items into your bank, just place the items inside and accept them if your bank had room, no withdraw option whatsoever until the pin number was presented during that 1 week period.
A system similar to this would definitely add more security to an account during a compromise. Just the option for it would be great, so those of us that want our vaults/guild banks locked and secure feel safer while those who do not want the extra step to access their vault/guild bank are not forced to remember a digit code and feel inconvenienced.
This was my first time getting hacked and I’ve learned from it. Changed the passwords of all accounts I care about and they’re all unique. I run daily scans on my computer and I’ll be changing my passwords on a monthly routine. Yet I do not feel as safe as I should.
- How would you feel about a system like this?
- Should there be any additions? Such as the same pin number for vault/guild bank access used before a character is deleted? Before items are deleted?
- Should this “pin number” code be presented before every access to the vault/guild bank, or just once before granting free access until you logout?